Category Archives: Coffee

Mmmm, coffee granita reminds me of my trip to Rome years ago when I happened upon Tazza d’Oro near the Pantheon. They made the BEST coffee granita (well, the first one I had ever tried) and they topped it with the perfectly whipped cream. It was so delicious and it was Italy…I mean, c’mon! The urge to find a replacement for it didn’t hit me until recently. Granita is one of those things that is pretty easy to make. It’s elegant and perfect now that our Bay Area “summer” has arrived.

And then there’s the Philz twist: How about coffee granita with cardamom whipped cream? Sounds like a frozen Tantilizing Turkish or Philharmonic blend…delicious!

Coffee Granita with Cardamom Whipped Cream
This recipe is from Bon Appetit’s April 2010 issue.

ful·phil·mint /fʊlˈfɪlmint/[fool-fil-mint]
–noun
1. A new medium-light coffee blend at Philz Coffee.
2. Specially formulated for those folks at Google by Phil with love.

This new blend was formulated with those folks over at Google in mind. Google employees get stocked with this blend in their offices…what a treat! We, here at Philz, are always looking to fulfill your coffee cravings — as hokey as that might sound, we really do! We enjoy making great coffee…it can be so fulfilling to drink.

Fulphilmint is a medium-light roast (so it gets you some caffeine…) but with full-bodied flavor! It’s also smooth to drink and won’t upset your stomach because of its low acidity! We’ve brought this special blend to our stores so next time you’re in, you should definitely check it out!

Do you have any extra coffee beans or ground coffee laying around getting stale? If it’s from us, hopefully not …but there are other uses for coffee beans besides drinking their brew.

Coffee beans in your purse? Yes, ladies, another thing that we should stash in our purses. A little bag of coffee beans…because when you are all out of mints or gum, you can suck on a coffee bean and your breath will smell clean and fresh!

Do you know what your olfactory bulb is?? It’s your sniffer, of course! That silly thing gets worn out if you smell too many perfumes and don’t let it rest properly. You can reset your sense of smell if you take a quick whiff of some coffee beans. It’s weird, but it totally works!

Some more smells that just don’t go away – you know the culprits – garlic, onions, fish… Even after a few times scrubbing at the sink with some soap doesn’t help. Coffee beans can help with that as well. You can rub a few coffee beans on your hands and the oils being released from the beans will absorb the smell. When the odor is gone, wash your hands in warm, soapy water. Double yay for our noses!

Don’t have any baking soda to freshen up your fridge? Use coffee beans instead! If there is any foul smell in your fridge, just place the beans inside a bowl and let it sit in your fridge. Odors be gone!

Coffee grounds are great for cleaning around the house too! The grounds can be used to clean any stain resistant surface, especially greasy kitchen surfaces and even greasy pots and pans! You know…that one you used to cook up some bacon this morning? And don’t worry, the beans won’t stain. They wipe right up!

Smell something gross in your kitchen drain and want to get rid of it? Slowly pour a cup of coffee grounds, mixed with boiling water, down the drain and odors will simply disappear.

Grounds for gardening… I know I’ve said this before. Adding coffee grounds to the soil used for your plants can be an effective way of helping them thrive. Use the coffee grounds sparingly in most of your garden so as to not raise the acidity of the soil and work it thoroughly into the surrounding soil.

Another new beauty regimen! Have you been yearning for smooth, exfoliated hands? Grind up your coffee beans to semi-coarse (for that extra exfoliating action) and rub them around with some liquid soap while you’re washing your hands. Smooth hands will be your reward!

Are you still searching for your favorite coffee? Have you worked your way through all the blends yet? Do you feel like you are a Philz connoisseur and you want to try a great new blend? Well, this is definitely one blend you should explore a little further! Let’s go to New York City…or more specifically, the island of Manhattan. A cup of the New Manhattan is a cheap alternative to a plane ticket to the East Coast!

The New Manhattan blend is distinctive in many ways. It’s a medium/light roast that is filled with busy, energetic flavors that mimic the hustle and bustle of Times Square. It has flavors of wine, oak, nuts and fruit…so every sip is delicious.

And for you people watching the acidity in the coffee you drink, you’re in luck — this blend has a low acidity and is medium bodied for great flavor!

Also, try this blend mixed with the Julie’s Ultimate blend for a special treat!

Oh, and did I mention that our New Manhattan blend is on sale during the month of May?? From May 1-31st, buy a pound of New Manhattan, and it’ll only cost you $11. That’s a 31% discount off the regular price…not bad for savings!

This is being featured at all our Philz locations so stop in and grab a pound for you and a friend! And it’s also available online on our website for delivery to your doorstep!!

It all began in an airport in Foyne (a busy travel point between Europe and the U.S. in the 1930-1940s)…one night in the winter of 1934, a flight left to New York and had to turn back because of the weather. Joe Sheridan, the chef that was working at the restaurant in the terminal building, offered the passengers a coffee drink mixed with some Irish whiskey. One American passenger asked if it was Brazilian coffee, and the chef answered, “that’s Irish coffee.”

In 1952 Jack Koeppler, owner of Buena Vista in San Fransisco brought the Irish Coffee recipe back to the United States and made it famous.

Directions
Heat the glass with boiling water so that it is good and hot. Add the whiskey, sugar and the hot coffee. Float the cream on top of the coffee. Do this by pouring the cream into a spoon rested just on the surface of the coffee. Let the cream flow into the bowl of the spoon and overflow onto the coffee. Lift the spoon as the cream builds up, so that a layer of cream builds up on top of the coffee. Since it is the sugar that allows the cream to float successfully do not try this in coffee without sugar. Do not stir. Irish coffee is best enjoyed by sipping the coffee through the cream.

MelittaBentz created something that is essential to Philz Coffee (as well as other filter-brewed coffees, of course!) — can you guess by her first name? It’s a definite hint! She invented the coffee filter back in 1908!

She was trying to find a better brewing solution than percolating or french press. She used blotting paper from her son’s school notebook to filter the grounds in a brass pot with a hole in the bottom. It turned out that this technique for making coffee made it less bitter and more flavorful.